The CFA Society of the UK (CFA UK) is delighted to announce the winners of its 2020 Journalism Awards.
The Awards highlight contributions to the advancement of investor education through journalism. Launched in 2012, the Journalism Awards celebrate articles that highlighted ethical and professional standards in the UK investment sector.
Investors Chronicle won the News Provider of the Year award. The judges found over the past 12 months this publication had made the most significant overall contribution to the advancement of investor education. Shares Magazine was highly commended.
Phil Oakley of Investors Chronicle won Journalist of the Year, with three articles. The first, Quality without growth is a bad mix examined why it is important to understand whether a company’s profits are sustainable or not.
Back to basics talked about why a company’s annual report is the single most important piece of information investors can use to make investing decisions. In his last article, Should investors avoid acquisitive companies? Oakley questioned whether acquisitions are good or bad for shareholders.
Jeff Prestridge from the Mail on Sunday was highly commended. The first of his three articles - These experts claim they can make DIY investors like you rich. But can you trust them? - was about how online investing platforms stack up. His others concerned his battle plan to fix the broken investment industry for customers, not fat cats and how to pick stocks like Warren Buffet.
Investors Chronicle was also this year’s winner of the ESG/Sustainability category with their article Green is good. This focused on ESG investing a core area of CFA UK - as countries move to more sustainable economic models, the investment sector have a vital role to play in directing capital towards it. The article was a collaborative effort and written by Algy Hall, Alex Newman, Nilushi Karunaratne and Alex Janiaud.
Highly commended for this category went to David Ricketts from Financial News, with his article Boardrooms:The new battleground for asset managers. This piece concerned how large passive investors are gaining an influence in the boardroom.
Paul Clarke of Financial News won the Inclusion and Diversity category for his article about Why working class graduates cannot break into banking. The piece looked at why students from elite backgrounds are more likely to be hired than those who are not and discussed the important subject of social diversity.
Highly commended went to Hannah Smith from Money Observer for her article What can women teach men about investing? She assessed the evidence of whether women are more successful at investing than men using three case studies.
The winner for the Value and Transparency category went to Steve Clapham contributor to Investors Chronicle and Algy Hall for their article Four simple ways to fix audits, which set out steps to improve audit quality in the UK by examining high-profile corporate failures.
The awards were determined by reviews of multiple, anonymised submissions from leading national and investment publications. The CFA UK Journalism Awards judging panel consisted of volunteers from the CFA UK membership.
The judging panel for this year’s Journalism Awards were:
- James MacLeod-Nairn
- Jenya Brown, CFA
- Joao Belotti, CFA
- Marisa Virseda, CFA
- Vishrut Chatrath, CFA
Journalism Award judge, James MacLeod-Nairn, Underwriter Short Term Business at UK Export Finance, said: “We have seen extremely high standards of journalism across the entrants, highlighting the important role they play in communicating the topical issues being faced within the asset management industry. These Awards try to show our gratitude for their contributions.
"The winners of the CFA UK Journalism Awards have addressed important subjects within the investment profession, but have done so in a way that engages the reader – in our opinion they deserve recognition for their excellent articles!"
Jenya Brown, CFA, Senior Director at PSP Investments, said: “It was a privilege to read through a number of well-researched, interesting and timely articles. At times, it was challenging to pick a clear winner. I would like to thank all the participants for the worthwhile contributions and congratulate the winners and highly commended pieces."
Joao Belotti, CFA, M&A advisor at Belotti & Associates, said: “The awards are a result of a very thorough process in which independent judges evaluated 97 entries divided in five categories.
“CFA UK strives for the progress and elevation of journalism, recognising its central role to society in times of alarming misinformation."
The winners of this year’s Journalism Awards were announced on 18 June 2020.
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Notes to editors:
For further information about the results or to request an interview, please contact Ogilvy: CFASocietyUK@ogilvy.com
About CFA UK
Part of the worldwide network of member societies of CFA Institute, CFA UK represents the interests of 12,000 investment professionals in the UK.